Genealogy Chat

Can anyone please tell me if ordering certificates through the GRO office is still the cheapest way of getting them.
Thank you,
Carole

Fees at our local registry office are £11.00

GRO charge £9.25

So, yes the GRO is the cheapest

Thank you Gins. I am in Australia and haven't ordered any for a couple of years. Have decided to get active on my family tree again. Thanks for the reply.
Carole

Carole ...............


The GRO price also includes post and handling, so £9.25 is all you have to pay.


Not all Registry Offices are now issuing certificates for family history, but the cost does not include post and handling.

Plus, they usually require an A4 stamped addressed envelope be included for the mailing to you .................... I don't know about Australia, but I cannot buy A4 envelopes or UK stamps in Canada, so I have to buy the closest size of envelope but that is sold individually. I also have to buy International Money Coupons from the bank to cover the stamp cost.

In addition, the RO wants a separate stamped envelope for each certificate you've ordered, even if you order them all at the same time.


I admit, the last time I ordered for a RO was a number of years ago .............. the cost to me actually came to more than double the GRO cost!

If you wanta the details from a marriage certificate then it is worth seeing if you can find the parish records on line.

For records over 100 years ago a lot of images of Cornish parishes are free on line via family search,, many London parishes are available via an Ancestry sub and others via FMP, Essex parishes are available for a 24hour sub for £10 (you can download many images for that).

The parish records have exactly the same data as the certificate but it is usually the original, whereas the certificates have data that has been copied by hand. They also have the actual signatures or Xs of the particiopants.

To add to Kense's list of Parish Record images available on line: Ancestry have Dorset, Birmingham, Liverpool; FMP have Shropshire.

Ancestry also has Manchester.

FS has a subset of Manchester, plus others, incl Norfolk - see

https://familysearch.org/search/collection/list#page=1®ion=UNITED_KINGDOM_IRELAND


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As you may know, the Feds in Oz don't issue BMDs - they're a state responsibility (more expansively, they were a colonial responsibility which became a state responsibility under Section 107 of the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900).
Oz got this split of responsibilities from the UK, and similarly, there's no such thing as a UK BMD.
The GRO only handle England & Wales - the rest of the UK (or former UK) is handled thru Edinburgh, Belfast or Roscommon. For the rest of the UK, ordering certs is not the cheapest way to go - uncertified images of the register entry, when available, are cheaper.